The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-16

| Lood through tne broken wlndow-pane and
see what you can see, You say; Nothing. 4"
No foothghts, but tragedy ghastlier and
mightier than Ristorl or Edwin Booth ever
enacted. No light, no fire, no bread, no
hope. Shivering in the cold, they have had
no food for twenty-f -four hours. You say:
"Why don't they begm They do. but they
get nothing You say: "Why don't they
deliver themselves over to the almshouseM
All! you would not ask that if you ever
heard the bitter cry of a man or child
when told he must go to the alnshouse.
"Ohl" you say, they are vicious poor,
and therefore, they do not deserve our
sympathy Are they vicious! So much
more need they your pity. The Christian
poor, God helps them. Through their night
there twinkles the round, merry star of
hope, and through the broken window-pane
they see the crystals of heaven; but the
vicious poor, they are more to be pitied.
Their last light has gone out You excuse
yourself from helping them by saying they
are SO bad, they brought this trouble on
themselves. | reply, where give ten pray
ers for the innocent who are suffering win
give twenty prayers for the guilty who are
suffering.
The fisherman, when he sees vessel dash
| ing into the breakers, comes out from his
hut and wraps the warmest hannels around
those who are most chilled and most bruised
and most battered in the wreck and | want
you TO know that these vicious poor have
| had two shipwrecks- -shipwreck of the body
shipwrecc of the soul-shipwreck for time,
| shipwreck for eternity. Pity, by all means,
the innocent who are suffering, but pity
more the guilty.
Pass on through the alley. Open the
door. 20" YOU say, at is locked" No, it
is not locked 1t has never been locked
No burglar would be tempted TO go in there
to steal anything. The door is never locked
| Only broken chair stands against the door
Shove it back. Go in. Strike a match
Now look. Beastliness and rags See those
glaring eyeballs. Be careful now what you
say Do not utter any insult; do not utter
any suspicion, il you value your life. WHAT
is that red mark on the walla 1t is the mark
of a murderer's handl
Look at those two eyes rising up out of
the darkness and out from the straw in the
corner, coming toward you, and as they
come near you your light goes out Strike
another match. All this is a babe, not like
those beautiful children presented in bap-
tism This little one never smiled; it never
will smile. A flower flung on an awfully
barren beach. Obi Heavenly Shepherd,
fold that little one in Thy arms. Wrap
around you your shawl or your coat tighter,
| for the cold wind sweeps through
Strike another match, All! is it possible
| that that young woman's SCARED and bruised
face ever was looked into by maternal ten
dernesss Utter no scorn. Utter no harsh
word. No ray of hope has dawned ON that
brow for many year. No ray of hope
ever will dawn on that brow. But the light
has gone out. Donot strike another light.
1t would be a nloeikery to kindle another
| light in such place as that. Pass out and
| pass down the street. Our cities of Brook
| fyn and New York and all our great cities
are full of such homes, and the worst time
the third watch of the night.
| Do you know it is in this third watch of
| the night that criminals do their worst work
| 1t is the criminals watch.
| At half-past eight o'clock you will find
them in the drinking saloon, but toward
| twelve O'Clock they go to their gaTIetS, they
| get out their tools, then they start on the
| street. Watching on either side for the po-
lice, they go to their work of darkness. This
is a burglar, and the false key will soon
touch the store lock. This is an incendiary,
and before morning there will be light on
the sky, and q cry of ''firel fire." This is
an assassin, and tomorrow morning there
| will be a dead body in one of the vacant
| lots. During the daytime these villains in
our cities lounge about, some asleep and
some awake, but when the third watch of
the night arrives, their eye keen, their brain
cool, their arm strong, their foot fleet to fly
or pursue, they are ready.
Many of these poor creatures were brought
up in that way. They were born in a
thieves garret. Their childish toy was a
burglars dark-lanteYn. The first thing they
remember was their mother bandaging the
brow of their father, struck by the police
club They began by robbing boys pockets,
and now they have come to dig the under
ground passage to the cellar Of the bank,
and are preparing to blast the goid vault.
1 Tt,c4 4la,.a a,,s.k fa1 chill
dren of the street, just so long we will have
these desperadoes Some one, wishing to
! make good Christian point and to quote a
passage of Scripture, expecting to get a
Scriptural passage in answer said to one of
these poor lads, cast out and wretched;
when your father and your mother for
sake you, who then will take you upp and
the boy said: "The perlice, the perhcen
In the third watch OF the night gambling
does its worst work. What though the
hours be slipping away, and though the
wife be waiting in the cherries homel Stir
up the fire. Bring on more drinks. Put up
more stakes That commercial house that
only little while ago put out sign of Co
partnership will this winter be wrecked ON
gamblers table. There will be many a
money-till that will spring leak. A mem
Der of Congress gambled with member
elect and won one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars. The old way of getting a
living is so slow. The old way of getting "a
fortune is so stupid Come, let us toss up
and see who shall have it, And 10 the work
goes on, from the wheezing wretches pitch
ing pennies in rum-grocery up to the mil
lionaire gambler in the stock market
In the third watch of the night, pass
down the streets of these cities, and you
hear the click of the dice and the sharp,
keen stroke of the ball on the billiard table.
At these places merchant princes dismount,
and Legislators tired of making laws, take a
respite in breaking them. All classes of
people are robbed by this crime--the inn
porter of foreign silks and the dealer in
Chatham street pocket handkerchiefs. The
clerks of the store take hand after the
shutters are put up, and the officers of the
court while away their time while the jury
is out.
In Baden Baden, when that city was the
greatest Of all gambling places on earth, il
was no unusual thing the next morning,
in the woods around about the city, to find
the suspended bodies Of suicides. Whatever
be the splendor Of surroundings, there is nc
excuse for this crime. Tho thunders OF
eternal destruction roll in the deep rumble
Of that gambling tenpin-alley, and as men
come out to join the long procession of sin
all tho drums OF death beat the dead-march
of a thousand souls.
In one year, in the city Of New York
there were seven million dollars sacrificed al
the gaming g-table Perhaps some of your
friends have been smitten Of this SIM Per.
haps some OF you have been smitten by it.